How Excellent Your Name

I'm currently working on more comic strips. Hopefully once there's enough material, they can be compiled into a collection or book. One of the things that continually inspires me is the same thing that inspired the many psalmists of old: Nature. In fact, one of my favourite psalms is Psalm 19. The first half of the psalm speaks of God's general revelation through nature.

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.

- Psalm 19:1,2 ESV -

I've drawn illustrations and a comic on Psalm 19:1 before, so I didn't want to simply do another one. While this comic is partly inspired by Psalm 19, it also draws inspiration from Psalm 8, from which the title is derived:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

- Psalm 8:3,4 ESV -

O LORD, our Lord,
         How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
- Psalm 8:9 NKJV -

You can purchase a T-shirt with this comic here!

Copyright © Pix Artz Pte Ltd  June 2011
If you would like to license this comic, please contact us by leaving a comment on this post with your email address.

Why Does God?

Sometimes people ask "If God is good, why does He let bad things happen to good people?" or something along those lines. The trouble is none of us are good by God's standards: "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins" (Eccl 7:20 ESV). In fact, being a holy God, He must punish sin. The real question is: "What kind of a God lets the sinner live?" Pastor John MacArthur replies, "A God who is a saviour by nature."


Copyright © Pix Artz Pte Ltd  May 2011
If you would like to license this comic, please contact us by leaving a comment on this post with your email address.


Update: Now you can wear this comic on a T-shirt! Visit our Zazzle shop here!

The Power of Comics to Impact Lives

About a month ago I picked up a book from the Library titled Security Blankets: How Peanuts Touched Our Lives. It is a collection of stories from all over the world about people whose lives have been touched by the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. The stories are amazing and many are deeply touching. There were stories of how Snoopy has been a comfort to people through difficult times, how Charlie Brown helped lonely people realise they were not alone in this world, how a personal encounter with Schulz himself touched hearts and showed the gracious soul behind those comic strips, and other stories of great joy and loss and how the Peanuts gang shared those special moments, and made them all the more special. One story even told about how Peanuts impacted the life of one young man so much that he eventually became a Christian author!

There are probably not many modern-day comic strip artists who are not indebted to Charles Schulz in one way or other. He was a pioneer in the field, and his endearing characters and astute observations inspired and influenced many who came after him in their craft. His comic strips transcended cultural boundaries and assured us that it was alright to be human.

The profound impact Schulz had on people's lives all around the world probably cannot be measured, and there are many more stories that are untold. However, as far as I know, Schulz - though clearly having some knowledge of the Bible, and enough to understand that Christmas was not about presents, but about the birth of Christ - was probably not a believer in the true Gospel and the exclusivity of Christ. I may be wrong, but this is from what I have been able to gather about his views on religion (please do correct me if I'm wrong). To me this speaks volumes: If a unbeliever can create something with so much truth and have such a deep and lasting influence on countless lives in a wholesome way, how much more can God use one of His own to impact multitudes for Christ through this same medium? Imagine what a good comic strip can do that is dedicated to God and committed to spreading His Word!

Wen's World may not exist as a daily comic strip like Peanuts, but nevertheless, Security Blankets has been deeply inspiring, and it makes me wonder what can be done to develop Wen's World to be a greater influence in people's lives for the sake of the Gospel.

Blessed †'mas!

It's been a while since I did a greeting picture, so I thought I'd do a special one this Christmas featuring the cast of Wen's World. There were a couple of things that I wanted to achieve in this pic, which I'll briefly explain.

First of all, you might find the brushwork and colour choices familiar. Well, I'm a big fan of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes comic strip (which has since been retired), and sought to emulate his style somewhat. The original sketch was drawn in pencil at A5 size, then scanned and blown up to A4 for inking using a brush pen. Colours were applied in Photoshop. The snowmen are also reminiscent of Calvin's works.

Secondly, I wanted to emphasize that it was not X'mas, but †'mas. There's no Christmas without Christ, so I decided to put the cross the right way up. This is the day we commemorate one of history's most remarkable events - the Incarnation, when God took the form of a human child to become the Saviour of the world. Christ is the only reason we celebrate the season, for without this Gift of God, we would still be walking in darkness.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

...

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth"

~ 1 John 1:1-4,14 ~

Nothing But the Blood

Most of Wen's World's illustrations can be said to be very cheerful. But once in a while, you may see something like the picture above among our works. In fact, I was told that one of my little nieces saw this picture and started crying non-stop.

When it comes to the Passion of our Lord, we often see images depicting Jesus with a serene face in death, hanging from the cross, or His back bruised with just a few scratches. But while the brutality of the cross may be toned down in many instances so as not to shock the public with too much gore, that very brutality must not be forgotten, for it is exactly that which shows us the cost of our sin to a holy God.

In this illustration which we did for our Names of God calendar, I tried to capture not only the physical suffering of Jesus, but his emotional pain at the scorn of a host of soldiers taking Him for a sport, and the utter callousness of human hearts towards Him who died for us. Yet no picture however well painted can begin to describe His agony in those few hours He spent forsaken by His Father. Therein lay the true price, and Jesus paid it in full as he drank to the dregs the cup of suffering that was meant to be ours.

Shall we tone down the suffering Jesus experienced on the cross? I hope we never do so, lest we forget how much we owe Him and how great a sacrifice He made out of love for us whose sin made the cross necessary.

Without His tears, there is no comfort

Without His death, there is no life

Without His blood, there is no pardon

Without His cross, there is no crown

Without His shame, there is no glory

Without His grief, there is no joy

Without His stripes, there is no healing

Without His cross, there is no crown

Lamb of God, You bring salvation

And with Your grace, our hearts are sealed

Lord, with Your tears of love, You bathed our sorrows

In Your eyes we stand revealed

Without His tears, there is no comfort

Without His death, there is no life

Without His blood, there is no pardon

Without His cross, there is no crown

Without His Cross

By : Joseph M. Martin

Wen's World Shirts (and more) by Zazzle!

Change of Seasons Shirt (single-side, light) by wensworld
See other Hamsters T-Shirts

At long last we have put up our designs on Zazzle, where you can order shirts, mugs, caps, badges, cards, mousepads and more! Even pet clothing for your doggy!

At this point in time we have posted our T-shirts, tote bags and mousepads. More items will be coming soon, so keep posted!

Come visit us at the Wen's World Zazzle shop today!

Mini Cards - The Harvest

We're planning for a range of mini cards now. I remember how I used to collect Pass-It-On® cards and loved to give them to my friends with a handwritten note behind. They were inexpensive and fit nicely into the wallet, and could double up as mini greeting cards as well as gift tags.

Most of the Pass-It-On® cards were friendship or encouragement themed, and were very meaningful. There are many verses in the Bible and quotes by Godly men and women along those lines. As I was designing this card, I wondered if many people would be attracted to the verse on it. After all, it is not really friendship-themed, and it is more for the Christian than the unbeliever. I decided that the design and colour would have to make up for that.

For this card, the verse was chosen after the concept. The inspiration was more an exercise of composition and colour to start with - A thin strip of blue sky at the top contrasting with rich yellow wheat fields at the bottom. Kako provides the point of interest as a farmer with his woven hat and sickle. I later added the clouds to break up the flat blue sky and put in more texture with a wheat brush I created in Photoshop. I originally wanted to include a bundle of wheat in the distance on the left, but in the end felt that it was unnecessary. The vast wheat field contrasted with a single labourer would communicate the message more effectively without the bundle of wheat.